The brilliant ideas of a 14-year-old

8/12/2009 – American IM Ray Robson was one of the four winners of the recently finished
Arctic Challenge in Norway. This was achieved by prodigious talent and some
excellent preparation. In his Wednesday night Playchess
lecture Dennis Monokroussos shows us the brilliant idea uncorked by Robson against
Rasmussen, one that could alter our understanding of the system.
Be there at 9 p.m. ET.

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The 2009 Arctic Chess Challenge recently finished in a four-way tie for first,
and one of the four winners was 14-year-old American IM Ray Robson. In the process
he achieved his first grandmaster norm, and it is games like the one we'll examine
this week that show his considerable promise. His game with GM Stig Allan Rasmussen
was a success in every way.

First of all, it looks like a triumph of preparation. Rasmussen played an idea
that had not been seen in practice, though it had been advocated in a recent,
important theoretical work. The result? No problem: Robson found an interesting
idea that wasn't discussed in that work, and it turned out that he was not the
surprisee but the surpriser. We'll see if White's idea can be rehabilitated,
but in the game Rasmussen made a series of natural moves, only to be hit by
a truly brilliant idea that won Black the game.

The game is thus of theoretical significance, attractive, and offers an unusual
concept we can add to our general understanding of the game. Want more details?
You'll have to tune in! It's easy: just log on to the Playchess server at 9
p.m. ET Wednesday night (that's 3 a.m. Thursday morning, CET), go to the Broadcasts
room and find Rasmussen-Robson in the games list. It's free, and that's all
there is to it. Hope to see you then!

Dennis Monokroussos'
Radio ChessBase
lectures begin on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST, which translates to 02:00h
GMT, 03:00 Paris/Berlin, 13:00h Sydney (on Thursday). Other time zones
can be found at the bottom of this page. You can use Fritz or any Fritz-compatible
program (Shredder, Junior, Tiger, Hiarcs) to follow the lectures, or download
a free trial client.

You can find the exact times for different locations in the world at World
Time and Date. Exact times for most larger cities are here.
And you can watch older lectures by Dennis Monokroussos offline in
the Chess Media System room of Playchess:

Enter the above archive room and click on "Games" to see the lectures.
The lectures, which can go for an hour or more, will cost you between one and
two ducats.
That is the equivalent of 10-20 Euro cents (14-28 US cents).

Monokroussos in Mexico: World Championship 2007

Dennis Monokroussos is 41, lives in South Bend, IN, where
he teaches chess and occasionally works as an adjunct professor of philosophy
at the University of Notre Dame and Indiana University-South Bend.

At one time he was one of the strongest juniors in the U.S. and has reached
a peak rating of 2434 USCF, but several long breaks from tournament play have
made him rusty. He is now resuming tournament chess in earnest, hoping to reach
new heights.

Dennis has been working as a chess teacher for ten years now, giving lessons
to adults and kids both in person and on the internet, worked for a number of
years for New York’s Chess In The Schools program, where he was one of
the coaches of the 1997-8 US K-8 championship team from the Bronx, and was very
active in working with many of CITS’s most talented juniors.

When Dennis Monokroussos presents a game, there are usually two main areas
of focus: the opening-to-middlegame transition and the key moments of the middlegame
(or endgame, when applicable). With respect to the latter, he attempts to present
some serious analysis culled from his best sources (both text and database),
which he has checked with his own efforts and then double-checked with his chess
software.

See also

11/28/2018 – The moment we've all been waiting for! Live games (for Premium members) from the 2018 World Championship match in London. Every two games will be followed by a rest day until Game 12 (if necessary) on November 26th which will be preceded by an additional rest day. All rounds start at 15:00 UT (London time) / 16:00 CEST / 10:00 EST. If needed there would be a rapid tiebreak match on Wednesday, November 28th. | Photos: Patricia Claros

See also

8/27/2018 – Live games and commentary from Saint Louis! Fabiano Caruana, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian tied for first place, while Caruana also tied for fourth place in the Grand Chess Tour standings with Wesley So, forcing a playoff match to be held on Tuesday. | Graphic: Saint Louis Chess Club

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.

"Simple yet aggressive!" Enjoy this new exciting DVD by Simon Williams. Let the famouns Grandmaster from England show you how to gain a very exciting yet well founded opening game with the London System (1.d4 d5 2.Bf4).